Yes, but 'dribble the ball' reminds me of basketball players. See the following sentence: 孩子们在拍皮球。 The children were bouncing a ball.

‘拍皮球’ is the way a child plays a ball, no matter which kind of ball it is. If a player plays basketball or football, we say '打篮球', ‘踢足球’ respectively. It's rude to say '拍皮球', when a player or an adult is playing basketball or football. If a player, especially a basketball player is bouncing a baskerball and don't move in the training field, we say '拍球'. And '拍皮球' means you bounce or beat a ball up and down within a small-range area, while 'dribble a ball'(运球 in Chinese) means you take a ball from one side of the court to the other side, technically. Here is a picture showing a child '拍皮球'. http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/bouncing-ball-2387145.jpg

拍皮球 is bounce the ball. When you 拍皮球， you can stand there or move. Dribble the ball is 运球.

means play ball, 打篮球 means play basketball, 踢足球 means play football. 拍、打、踢 is an action, when you play them, 嗯，是这样。

盘球(Dribble)是一项体育术语，是指球在单一球员下推进而防止对方球员拦截。在足球使用双脚、篮球使用手、曲棍球使用棍、水球使用泳式。成功的盘球可以摆脱对方守卫而创造得分机会。在足球层面上，盘球也会被称为扭波。